freezing of the metal. The trouble was that when that distance in time was short—days or weeks or thereabouts—the tunnels were unstable. They might last milliseconds. They might not. To prove that they existed at all required very special equipment. Like a fool I wrote an article about it. Foolishly, they printed it in a learned magazine. And then I caught the devil!”
“And?”
“You needed very special equipment to prove my results. Nobody else had it. But they didn’t need it to discredit me! If time-travel was possible, a man might go into the past and kill his grandfather—”
“I know that one,” said Harrison. “Pepe—Ybarra, that is—sprang it on me. In theory, if a man went back in time and killed his grandfather, he wouldn’t be born to do it.”
“But facts,” said Carroll stubbornly, “are facts! If he did it, it would be done! If he killed his grandfather, his grandfather would have been killed, impossible or not!” Then he said wryly, “Anyhow, nobody else had the equipment to try my experiments. But the reputation of a young girl is a lot harder to hurt than the reputation of a researcher! I was denounced as a liar, a faker, a forger—practically a murderer of my own grandfather. Professionally, I was ruined!”
“I’m—sorry,” said Harrison.
“So am I,” said Carroll. “Because I got mad. I resolved to prove I was right. My trouble was having a short time-length to work with. I needed a metal casting that had solidified a long while ago and had never been moved. By pure chance I heard that this foundry shut up shop so fast it left its last cannon in the mould. So I had to have that cannon, undisturbed. That meant I had to have this cottage. And—the woman who is now Madame Carroll had just inherited it!”
Harrison said:
“And you married her for it?”
“No. I’m not that big a fool. I tried to buy it. She kept trying to get the last franc out of me. I must have acted rich. I offered twice its value and she asked three times. I agreed to three times and she demanded four. I fretted. I was taken ill. And she nursed me. Maybe she hoped to find out how far I’d go from hearing my delirium! Anyhow, one day the maire came to my room wearing his sash of office. And he married us! I must have been delirious at the time! But there it was! When I recovered, there was the devil of a row! She’d married me for money, and I wanted to spend it on scientific experiments! Harrison, you wouldn’t believe such rows could end without homicides! But I made the time-tunnel, of nearly two centuries’ reach. And it is stable! It can last forever! But—do you see the charming, ironic fact?”
“No-o-o…”
“I found out that the past can be changed, and therefore the present, but there is no conceivable way to know what change will produce what result! I daren’t use it, Harrison, not even to regain my reputation! It’s too dangerous to be used by anybody but shopkeepers like my wife and M’sieur Dubois!”
Carroll grimaced.
“So I let them use it for a shop’s supply of curios! I was a fool, but you can’t say I wasn’t practical, turning a means of time-travel into a shopkeeper’s supply of back-number newspapers and similar oddments!”
He strode out of the room. Harrison looked after him. He felt singularly helpless. He was.
For the next three days he was acutely uncomfortable. He did not think it wise to write to Valerie because Madame Carroll would read the letter. He had to wait without being sure what he waited for. Once, half-heartedly, he tried to inform himself about the France he would presently visit. He learned that in 1804 handkerchiefs were not carried for the utilitarian purposes of more recent times. Smoking was practised, but snuff was more elegant. The reputations of many of the members of the Imperial court—including the Imperial family—were approximately those of domestic animals. And he learned that the sanitary arrangements in cities of the
“And?”
“You needed very special equipment to prove my results. Nobody else had it. But they didn’t need it to discredit me! If time-travel was possible, a man might go into the past and kill his grandfather—”
“I know that one,” said Harrison. “Pepe—Ybarra, that is—sprang it on me. In theory, if a man went back in time and killed his grandfather, he wouldn’t be born to do it.”
“But facts,” said Carroll stubbornly, “are facts! If he did it, it would be done! If he killed his grandfather, his grandfather would have been killed, impossible or not!” Then he said wryly, “Anyhow, nobody else had the equipment to try my experiments. But the reputation of a young girl is a lot harder to hurt than the reputation of a researcher! I was denounced as a liar, a faker, a forger—practically a murderer of my own grandfather. Professionally, I was ruined!”
“I’m—sorry,” said Harrison.
“So am I,” said Carroll. “Because I got mad. I resolved to prove I was right. My trouble was having a short time-length to work with. I needed a metal casting that had solidified a long while ago and had never been moved. By pure chance I heard that this foundry shut up shop so fast it left its last cannon in the mould. So I had to have that cannon, undisturbed. That meant I had to have this cottage. And—the woman who is now Madame Carroll had just inherited it!”
Harrison said:
“And you married her for it?”
“No. I’m not that big a fool. I tried to buy it. She kept trying to get the last franc out of me. I must have acted rich. I offered twice its value and she asked three times. I agreed to three times and she demanded four. I fretted. I was taken ill. And she nursed me. Maybe she hoped to find out how far I’d go from hearing my delirium! Anyhow, one day the maire came to my room wearing his sash of office. And he married us! I must have been delirious at the time! But there it was! When I recovered, there was the devil of a row! She’d married me for money, and I wanted to spend it on scientific experiments! Harrison, you wouldn’t believe such rows could end without homicides! But I made the time-tunnel, of nearly two centuries’ reach. And it is stable! It can last forever! But—do you see the charming, ironic fact?”
“No-o-o…”
“I found out that the past can be changed, and therefore the present, but there is no conceivable way to know what change will produce what result! I daren’t use it, Harrison, not even to regain my reputation! It’s too dangerous to be used by anybody but shopkeepers like my wife and M’sieur Dubois!”
Carroll grimaced.
“So I let them use it for a shop’s supply of curios! I was a fool, but you can’t say I wasn’t practical, turning a means of time-travel into a shopkeeper’s supply of back-number newspapers and similar oddments!”
He strode out of the room. Harrison looked after him. He felt singularly helpless. He was.
For the next three days he was acutely uncomfortable. He did not think it wise to write to Valerie because Madame Carroll would read the letter. He had to wait without being sure what he waited for. Once, half-heartedly, he tried to inform himself about the France he would presently visit. He learned that in 1804 handkerchiefs were not carried for the utilitarian purposes of more recent times. Smoking was practised, but snuff was more elegant. The reputations of many of the members of the Imperial court—including the Imperial family—were approximately those of domestic animals. And he learned that the sanitary arrangements in cities of the
Similar Books
